Our neighborhood has a lot of indoor-outdoor pets and a few truly feral cats. The ones in this house are free to come and go; they have schedules around meal times and naps, so I usually know where to find them. More or less.
Cats are very territorial, but the territories might not be quite where you think. A decade ago, there were several studies collecting GPS data on cat movements. Now we have easy access to GPS tools like Apple Air Tags and so on, but in the early 2010s, GPS devices were less common.
A project started in 2014, Cat Tracker has been collecting GPS data on cats in the US and has some interesting results.
An earlier study in the UK turned into an excellent episode of Horizon, which showed that cats’ territories are not only in space but in time, too. It’s an hour-long episode that you can watch on Dailymotion. The part about “time sharing territories” is about halfway through the program.
Closer to home, I know that if I wake to the front door slightly ajar, then the neighbor’s cat, who I call Howly Jr, has been in to sneak a midnight snack. Not every night, but once a week or so. Like this morning.
Also this morning, as I sat at my desk starting to work, I heard some cat warning growls outside. When I investigated, I saw a tuxedo cat over by the drainage ditch at the corner. It ran up the street and into the woods followed by…Fritter? An orange cat, at least. It was too far to tell for sure, but I don’t know of any other local orange cats who run easily.
So now I am tempted to affix GPS tags to my clowder and find out where they go. Or not, because then I will be anxious about them crossing the road or getting into trouble with the neighbors.
